


Morals vs Rights

by CheerfullyCynical



Series: Whumptober2019 Malec/Shadowhunters [4]
Category: Shadowhunters (TV)
Genre: A kid Alec fic!, A look into the life of a little Alec, Alec Lightwood Needs A Hug, Captured!Magnus, Captured!Raphael, Day Four: Human Shield, Gen, Hurt Alec Lightwood, I'm really excited to share this one, Kid Fic, M/M, Whumptober 2019, kid!alec
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-09
Updated: 2019-10-09
Packaged: 2020-11-28 11:06:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,701
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20965520
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CheerfullyCynical/pseuds/CheerfullyCynical
Summary: Alec was training, trying to prefect his round house kick that Jace was immediately good at, when a man is dragged into the Institute with blood running down his face.Alec, stupidly, investigates.XxXxXxXxXxA Kid!Alec fic featuring a Magnus that was captured by the Clave! How will eight year old Alec react to Magnus being mistreated?





	Morals vs Rights

**Author's Note:**

> I AM. DESPERATELY. TRYING TO KEEP UP. WITH THE WRITING. OF WHUMPTOBER. IT IS. NOT GOING. WELL. 
> 
> I know I complained about it already, but why is this during midterms? It's TORTURE. I wanna write but I gotta study!
> 
> ANYWAY, I hope you enjoy little Alec! Even at eight (I realized I never mentioned it in the fic, but he is indeed eight here), he's something to write! 
> 
> Enjoy!

Alec was training.

It was late at night, nearly one in the morning, but he couldn’t stop himself. Every time after he had a sparred with Jace, he felt more anxious than when they had begun. Jace was a better close-range fighter, he admitted it with glee, and Alec had no hope against him when he didn’t have his bow.

_“Just gotta work on your round house kick,” Jace had said, helping him up once again, “You leave yourself too vulnerable.”_

Alec didn’t _want _to be too vulnerable – ever. He hated the feeling. His parents had drilled into him that he had to be a leader – the perfect son, the perfect soldier, the perfect role model. It was up to him protect his family.

He couldn’t do that if he wasn’t good at killing demons.

He threw a punch at the bag, letting the pain wash over him as he moved onto his round house kick. It was sloppy, _again, _judging by how his feet had landed. He groaned in frustration, exhausted. He threw one more ridiculously sloppy punch before letting himself get a drink of water.

He froze mid gulp when he heard people coming from the hallway. Without thinking, he ran to hide behind one of the tapestries, for once glad that he was so small.

“You hear that, Bane?” One of them was saying. Alec didn’t recognize him, so it must have been one of the Clave envoys his mother told him about. “You’re gonna have a nice long stay with us.”

They finally rounded the corner. Alec just barely got a glimpse of a man being dragged forcibly by the arm. To Alec’s horror, his eye was glued shut by thick, red blood. Did these Shadowhunters hurt him? Why wasn’t anyone looking after his injuries? Where were they taking him?

Too curious for his own good, Alec made his way silently through the Institute hallways, just far enough to see the group of Shadowhunters but enough to play off walking in a different direction if he had too.

They were taking him to the basement. Alec hadn’t been allowed to go down there, never given a reason why, but told that if he disobeyed this order, he would be on ichor duty for three days. His siblings, and himself, didn’t dare _not _listen to that particular request from their mother.

He paused, hiding behind a hallway. One of the Shadowhunters put his hand on one of the keypad thingies, a loud click echoing through the hallway. Shoot, if didn’t go now, there wasn’t a chance of seeing where they were taking the man.

Adrenaline coursing through his system, he sprinted his way to the door, just slipping his hand into the crack of it, holding it open. He waited to see if the Shadowhunters heard him, but they were busy talking to themselves, not noticing the door.

His mom wouldn’t be pleased if she knew that he was able to sneak by them without much difficulty.

Carefully, he opened the door just wide enough to peek an eye through, wondering why the Institute had what could only be a prison cell. Bane was pushed inside, straight to the ground with a grunt. Another person in the cell rushed to him, but the Shadowhunters banged on the bars, causing the two people to jump back.

“Enjoy the peace and quiet while you can.” One of them mocked, “We’ll be back soon.”

And then, the two were walking past the cells and into another room, the door closing behind him. Alec continued picking in through the door, not wanting to be seen yet.

“You alright?” The other person asked Bane. “How in Lilith’s hell did they get you?”

Bane was helped up by the other man, who, Alec could now see, had fangs sticking past his lips. A vampire! Maybe it _wasn’t _an innocent man, then! Maybe these Shadowhunters weren’t so bad.

“I was protecting the kids,” Bane replied, rubbing at his injured eye, making a face at the blood, “One of those idiots managed to sneak up on me.”

_Kids? _How could this man say that he was protecting kids? And if he was, why would the Shadowhunters arrest him for that?

“Catarina and Ragnor? Samuel?” The other man asked quietly, obviously worried. “_You?” _

“Fine,” Bane replied, smiling slightly at the man. They were friends? “Last I saw they were taking some of your people back to the hotel.”

“And the accessory?”

Bane looked down at his wrist just as Alec did. There were... Shackles? They were covered in large black runes, some of which Alec recognized as the lock runes, others he had never seen. But why would this man need special runes to keep him captive?

“My magic is useless,” Bane muttered, eyes becoming cold, “But we’ve got bigger problems at the moment. We should-”

_Voices. _Alec turned his head around, heart stopping when he realized that people were coming his way. It wouldn’t be long until they spotted him spying. Not knowing what to do but knowing that being out and exposed in the hallway was a worse option, he opened the door all the way and rushed in, quickly shutting it behind him.

Alec put his back to the door, looking at the two man, who looked just as shocked as he was. For a moment, no one dared to say anything.

“Hello,” Bane said eventually, “What’s a little Shadowhunter doing walking around this late at night?”

Alec stayed silent, not willing to give anything away.

“Wonderful,” The other man said, “We’re being spied on by a child. It can’t get any more revolting.”

But Bane didn’t say anything. “Ignore him, he’s always grumpy.”

Alec couldn’t help but smile at that, reminded of his own sister when she woke up in the morning. And it was hard _not _to smile when Bane was looking at him with such kind eyes, even when he couldn’t see out of one of them.

“I’m really not supposed to be here.” Alec whispered, not really sure what else he could do. His mother was going to _kill _him. He could leave, he supposed, but the door was so thick that it wasn’t possible for him to hear if someone was coming on the other side of it.

“Ah,” Bane said, nodding in understanding, “Sneaking around late at night?”

“I was training.” Alec said, wrapping his head around how he got in this situation, “And – and then I heard them talking. And then I saw you.”

Alec shook his head. He was supposed to be prepared for _anything_. Without another word, he gathered up whatever courage he had left and moved into the room, looking around. A familiar desk was to the side of the cells, just far enough for the…Prisoners to not be able to touch it. However, seeing as how Alec was in the infirmary _a lot _ever since he started training with Jace, he knew that the runes marking it indicated that there were medical supplies in there.

“There’s…” Alec opened a drawer, only to find it nothing in it. “There’s usually bandages…” Alec tired to open another drawer, only to find that it was locked by a rune. He tried another, finding only a single white rag in it.

It should be enough.

“That’s very kind of you.” Bane told him, sounding surprised. The vampire said nothing but continued to watch him with critical eyes. It was fine – Alec was used to people judging him.

Without another word, Alec wet the rag and…And froze, wondering what in Raziel’s name he was doing. These men _had _to been doing _something _for the Shadowhunters to hurt him. But he just said he was protecting kids?

Everything in Alec’s training was telling him to run as far as possible, yet another part, a bigger part, was screaming at him that he couldn’t leave another person injured, not when he had the ability to help.

Alec moved towards the cell bars, holding out the rag with a shaky hand. Bane took it gently, even with his cuffed wrists, and brought it to his eye.

“Thank you.” He said, softly.

Alec nodded, not really able to say anything else. “I-”

And then, the door opened. One of the Shadowhunters from before stared at him, obviously shocked that he was there. All the people in the room froze, wondering who was going to react first.

“You’re that Lightwood boy.” The Shadowhunter said, “What the hell are you doing down here?”

Alec said nothing, standing at attention, but not willing to explain. How _could _he explain it? It was then the man noticed what Bane had in his hands.

“You’re _helping _this filth?” The man spat, furious. He rushed at the cell, glaring at Bane with cold fury. All of Alec’s instincts screamed _attack – _That the man was going to throw a punch any moment. Without second guessing himself, he ran in front of the bars, watching as if in slow motion as the man took one step towards Bane…And then a small pivot to his body and…

A fist flew directly at Alec’s face.

Alec went down hard, head smacking first against the bars and then against the concrete ground. He thought he heard screaming, but he couldn’t hear clearly over the roaring in his ears.

He opened his eyes just once, getting a glimpse of beautiful yellow and orange – an indescribable color – eyes, before he shut them again, unable to stay awake.

He woke up in his bed.

Alec had a headache beyond any headache he had ever felt. He brought a hand to his temple, surprised to find bandages wrapped around his head.

He didn’t remember ever getting hurt.

His siblings were smiling at him, telling him that he was found in the training room like that. Apparently, while he was practicing his round house kick, he had lost his balance and managed to run right into one of the concrete polls in the room, splitting his head open.

Alec didn’t remember any of it.

The _only _thing he could remember, when he would try to recall anything about that night, were beautiful, golden cat eyes.

**Author's Note:**

> I'd love some input on this one! It was hard to write...A kid, ya know? They obviously got different ways of reacting and thinking, so it was hard to not be so...Sophisticated with Alec's thoughts. 
> 
> Anyway, have a wonderful day Shadowhunters fam! <3


End file.
